158 Mr. W. W. Saunders on 



XVIII. On Insects injurious to the Cotton Plant. By W. 

 W. Saunders, Esq., F.L.S. 



[Read February 3rd, 1851.] 



Having had my attention recently called to the insects injurious 

 to the Cotton plant, I have been seeking for information on this 

 subject from various sources, where I expected to have found the 

 object of my inquiries fully answered. It is with surprise, how- 

 ever, that I discover that the insects in question have been but 

 very little studied, and have scarcely excited the attention of those 

 interested in the growth of cotton ; although it is evident, from the 

 accounts published of the ravages of these insects, that at times 

 the amount of loss to the planter must have been very great. No 

 careful description, nor well directed observations, seem to have 

 been made by our Transatlantic brethren on the various insects 

 which we read of under the names of Chenille, Cotton Bug, Cut- 

 worm, &c, &c, insects well known to the planters, as their worst 

 enemies, and concerning them the particulars I have to offer are of 

 a very unsatisfactory kind, wanting entirely in that exact informa- 

 tion so necessary to the entomological inquirer, and which, if fully 

 developed, might lead to some satisfactory method of diminish- 

 ing, if not preventing, the injuries so much complained of. A 

 short account of these insects, extracted from Porter's Tropical 

 Agriculturist, and the History of the Cotton Manufacture, by 

 Dr. Ure, is all that I can discover of any value on the subject, 

 and the extracts hereafter made will show that the information 

 afforded is of a very scanty and unsatisfactory nature. Pursuing 

 the subject further, I find a brief notice and description of a moth 

 injurious to the cotton plant in Abbot and Smith's Insects of 

 Georgia, which may be one of those alluded to by Mr. Porter or 

 Dr. Ure; but I have no means of proving their identity. There 

 is also in the Transactions of the Entomological Society, vol. Hi., 

 a notice of a small moth, very injurious to the cotton plant, at 

 Broach, in the East Indies, which I brought to the notice of this 

 Society, and called Depressaria Gossyptella. The published infor- 

 mation on insects injurious to the cotton plant, appears to termi- 

 nate here, as far as I can ascertain ; and it is my intention, after 

 laying a short account of the insects alluded to before this 

 Society, to proceed to the description of some others, about which 

 1 have more positive information, trusting that the whole may be 



